RESEARCH ON AUTOMATED VEHICLE TECHNOLOGIES IS CONtinuing at a brisk pace, and we could see deployments sooner than we had
once expected.
A panel at the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals’
(CSCMP) 2019 Edge conference discussed the progress being made on
autonomous truck technology. Among other examples, panelists cited
TuSimple, a San Diego-based automated truck company that is currently doing regular runs with autonomous vehicles between Phoenix and
Tucson, Arizona. A driver is behind the wheel ready to take control if needed, but the trucks drive themselves from depot to depot automatically. In
a recent 1,000-mile autonomous run through Arizona,
New Mexico, and Texas, the truck maneuvered successfully through stormy conditions and high winds.
Direct, repeatable highway routes are the sweet spot
for autonomous trucks. In an age of driver shortages,
when 90,000 new drivers are needed each year, it’s better to deploy that labor where it’s needed most, such as
routes with frequent delivery stops. Let the automated
vehicles carry the long-haul loads.
Safety will also drive a lot of the decisions around
autonomous vehicles. While some fear that trucks
driving themselves may not be safe, the opposite
is true. The safety features already deployed on the
trucks, such as automatic braking, have reduced rear-end truck collisions by 70%.
Some 40,000 traffic deaths occur in the U.S. each year, 94% of which are
caused by driver error. Trucks are responsible for less than 10% of those
deaths. Autonomous vehicles will eliminate the human errors.
Of course, while these trucks can already navigate safely under normal
circumstances, they will have to prove they can also do it under abnormal
conditions. Researchers in Finland are working on systems that will allow
trucks to navigate ice- and snow-covered roads, where road markings are
obscured.
In my own state of Pennsylvania, the Department of Transportation
just announced an $8.4 million four-year program to study how self-driving vehicles can safely navigate work zones. Construction areas can be
dangerous places, with accidents in these zones killing more than 4,700
Americans annually. The study will look at systems that allow vehicles to
communicate directly with work-zone equipment and more easily recognize orange construction barrels and lane markings on uneven surfaces.
While the CSCMP panel said it will take about 10 years before we see
widespread adoption of autonomous vehicles, the technology to make it
happen should be ready within the next five to seven years.
bigpicture
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